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That's the Explorers Podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War, episode 102, No Manhan, part four, disaster on the Holston.

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After the Japanese failures of July, in which they attempted to launch an attack over the

river to dislodge the Soviets on the western side, the fighting around Noman Hand settled

down to a series of small Japanese efforts, each of which were answered by a Soviet response.

At the same time that they were defending against these Japanese efforts, the Red

Army was also preparing for its own offensive, and it would be the largest one yet. When planning

for the offensive, Zukov wanted to go big. During July, most of the Japanese attacks and Soviet

counterattacks had been relatively small affairs, maybe a regiment or two in the attack, a regiment or two in the

counterattack. But that was mostly all that had been happening. Zukov wanted to launch

attacks with divisions when he kicked off his offensive in late August. To do this, he requested

yet another fresh batch of units to expand to those already under his command. During July, two more

infantry divisions, two Mongolia and cavalry divisions, another tank brigade, and an airborne

...